Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
April 2016
From The Eponymous Pickle
AI and Human Values
Just this week looked back again at the work by Cyc to understand human common sense. But that is only part of the challenge. We will need to address values as AI advances. Can values be readily defined in something like…
From BLOG@CACM
US-BLS: Computing Employment Outlook Remains Bright
According to the most recent US-BLS Employment Projections, most STEM career opportunities are in computing.
From The Eponymous Pickle
Quantum Advances
Some additional quantum computing advances. Some worry that these methods will make encryption less secure.
From insideHPC
Driving Innovation at the Hartree Centre with the OpenPOWER Architecture
In this video from the OpenPOWER Summit, Dr. Mike Ashworth from the STFC Hartree Centre presents: Driving Innovation at the Hartree Centre with the OpenPOWER Architecture. "The STFC Hartree Centre has been established with a …
From The Eponymous Pickle
Internet of Things Needs Design
Well, yes, have been saying this for decades, even when the 'thing' was only an attached RFID strip. Classic architecture and standards argument. Make it 'Open' too, please. In the HBR:
From The Eponymous Pickle
Confidence vs Intelligence
Generalized thought, but useful. A little like 'A for effort'. Acquired skill is still very useful. Backing up your confidence also useful.Here Is Why Confidence Will Always Trump IQHaving a high IQ is great, but confidence…
From insideHPC
Job of the Week: HPC Linux Engineer at Pfizer
Pfizer in Connecticut is seeking an HPC Linux Engineer in our Job of the Week. "We are seeking an accomplished Linux operations engineer with a comprehensive understanding of Linux including systems administration, application…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Customer Relationships Beyond Advertising
Podcast and text. The continued transferal of control to the customer." ... How many times do you block advertising in an app or online? Yet, many companies persist in this marketing technique. In a new book, Wharton marketing…
From Putting People First
The Internet of Things needs design, not just technology
Scott A. Nelson writes that, as B2C companies rush to exploit new IoT applications, pushing technology to potential end users no longer works. Increasingly, the pull of user experience will drive market demand, and product design…
From Putting People First
Security versus UX
Gwendolyn Betts explores how to reconcile one of the biggest challenges in interface design: security versus user experience. Betts writes that it is not uncommon for security measures to be tacked on at the end as an afterthought…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Another IFTTT Tool for Automated Workflow
This has always been a good idea, surprised there has not been more competition. Still not ready, in development. Implications for combining IOT activity.Microsoft has created its own IFTTT tool called Flow, in the Verge,If…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: Global Squid Shortage
There's a squid shortage along the Pacific coast of the Americas. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered....
From insideHPC
Video: Lustre 2.9 and Beyond
In this video from LUG 2016, Andreas Dilger from Intel presents: Lustre 2.9 and Beyond. “I do this presentation every year and I think it is important to focus on features that are going to be available in the short term."
The…From The Eponymous Pickle
Open AI Gym is Now in Place
An Open AI Dojo, some are calling it. To set up standards for AI. It is an open Beta." ... We're releasing the public beta of OpenAI Gym, a toolkit for developing and comparing reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms. It consists…
From Schneier on Security
I'm Writing a Book on Security
I'm writing a book on security in the highly connected Internet-of-Things World. Tentative title: Click Here to Kill Everything Peril and Promise in a Hyper-connected World There are two underlying metaphors in the book. The…
From insideHPC
Designing Interfaces in Materials with Supercomputers
Designing materials atom-by-atom has long been a science fiction dream. Georg Schusteritsch and Chris Pickard of the University of Cambridge are bringing science fiction one step closer to reality using the UK National Supercomputing…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Is software a neutral agent?
We face an embarrassing amount of information but when we feel overwhelmed, as Clay Shirky said, “It’s not information overload. It’s filter failure.” Unavoidably, we rely heavily on recommender systems as filters. Email clients…
From insideHPC
Quad-Core Maker Board Uses BSC Programming Model OmpSs
Parallel programming software developed at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center is being used as part of a successful kickstarter campaign for a maker board with 10 times the power of the Rasberry PI 3. "Developed at BSC, the …
From insideHPC
EuroMPI Conference Partners with Women in HPC to Bolster Diversity
Over at the Women in HPC Blog, Daniel Holmes from EPCC writes that the EuroMPI Conference is partnering with Women in HPC to increase diversity in high performance computing.
The post EuroMPI Conference Partners with Women in…From Phys.org Technology News
Obama announces new steps to curb gun violence
President Barack Obama announced new steps Friday to help curb gun violence, including by identifying the requirements that "smart guns" would have to meet for law enforcement agencies to buy and use them as well as sharing mental…
From insideHPC
HPC and SMEs – The Fortissimo Initiative
"Fortissimo will make advanced simulation more easily accessible, particularly to SMEs, through the realization of a “one-stop shop” where hardware, expertise, applications, visualization and tools will be easily available and…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Amazon as a Logistics Company
In Fastcompany: They certainly need the best of efficiency in supply chains and logistics. But it is still ultimately an innovative retailer.
From Schneier on Security
Documenting the Chilling Effects of NSA Surveillance
In Data and Golliath, I talk about the self-censorship that comes along with broad surveillance. This interesting research documents this phenomenon in Wikipedia: "Chilling Effects: Online Surveillance and Wikipedia Use," by…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Enterprise Ontology Frameworks
An investigation brought this to my attention. Ontologies can give organization to many kinds of analytics processes.The Enterprise Ontology Reference FrameworkThe Global University Alliance (GUA) is an open group of academics…
From The Eponymous Pickle
NY Times Continues to Push Virtual Reality
Continued effort to change a basic form delivery of journalism. In Engadget: NY Times sends 300,000 Google Cardboard viewers to subscribersThe Gray Lady wants to virtually fly you to Pluto. .... "
From The Noisy Channel
Where should you put your data scientists?
Today I had the honor of delivering the keynote address at Hilary Mason’s Fast Forward Labs Data Leadership Conference in New York. It was…
From The Female Perspective of Computer Science
'Take Your Kid to Work Day' Coding Workshop with ScratchJr
A new professional development day was recently added to our local school board's calendar. One of my colleagues, John Duff, made the brilliant suggestion to have a 'take your kid to work day' instead of scrambling to find babysitting…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Samsung's Personal Assistant: Otto
And yet another assistant example: Samsung's Otto. Always attentive. Seemingly more oriented to the internet of things. Mode video directed like a security camera. In the Verge:" ... Samsung is pushing hard into the Internet…
From BLOG@CACM
Combining Arts and Technology, Creating Steam Curricula
A "STEAM teaching autobiography."
From Computational Complexity